****, JKD is bullshit on it's own. How do you justify writing a book on what amounts to a poorly performed jab?

I'd pretend to be offended, but I think it's used as a cover for ridiculous bullshit by quite a few people. The basic idea, crosstraining anything you think you can use and ignoring style loyalty, is pretty good.

I agree with you on the straight lead though. I'd go with a jab any day.

I'd pretend to be offended, but I think it's used as a cover for ridiculous bullshit by quite a few people. The basic idea, crosstraining anything you think you can use and ignoring style loyalty, is pretty good.

I agree with you on the straight lead though. I'd go with a jab any day.

Glad you see it that way. I totally agree with being open to other styles, even if some offer only a minimum of useful techniques.
The idea of having a JKD class baffles me, though. It's supposed to be a theory, so a JKD class SHOULD consist of students taking notes, hearing lectures and reading.
I have no problem accepting that there a few JKD guys that can actually fight, but ALL the "Jeet Kun Do" I've seen is a bunch of jackoffs trying to imitate what they see in Enter The Dragon, or just worse-than-usual Wing Chun.

Glad you see it that way. I totally agree with being open to other styles, even if some offer only a minimum of useful techniques.
The idea of having a JKD class baffles me, though. It's supposed to be a theory, so a JKD class SHOULD consist of students taking notes, hearing lectures and reading.
I have no problem accepting that there a few JKD guys that can actually fight, but ALL the "Jeet Kun Do" I've seen is a bunch of jackoffs trying to imitate what they see in Enter The Dragon, or just worse-than-usual Wing Chun.

I think a lot of us call it Jeet Kune Do because people ask you what style of MA you practice. Rather than explain the whole thing from scratch a couple times a week I say "Jeet Kune Do". I answer the blank expression that usually follows with, "You know, that Bruce Lee thing."

To be honest, I have no idea what other JKD guys do. My school allows you to take your classes ala carte, so I wrestle three days a week in class and do another in stickfighting because my schedule doesn't accomodate the Thai boxing class I want right now. The _ing_un guys at my school come from taking the Jun Fan classes and nothing else. I've shied even farther away from WC because we have an informal sparring get together on saturdays; they tend to get slapped around if they don't revert to boxing/thai boxing and haven't taken a substantial number of grappling classes.

Of all weapon arts, I think stickfighting is the most valuable supplement to unarmed combat. I've found the repeated motions from stick patterns to be quite beneficial for "swimming" through the clinch, in addition to some strikes and active blocking. My buddy, who thinks his krotty is an unstoppable style, argues with me constantly about things like this. Kinda funny how he'll only grapple with me, since he always gets owned at standup, in spite of a 100 pound weight advantage.

Hearing your take on this, I wonder if I've been too quick to judge JKD. My experience has been that JKD'ers aren't open to studying anything their own teacher doesn't show them, which seems to run contrary to what JKD is supposed to be about.

I flipped through it in the bookstore because I had the same question. It appears that she dances a lot around Bruce Lee/JKD/Jun Fan history and the like.

Actually, the books becomes technical after the first chapter. The first chapter is mostly about western boxing and fencing and about how the boxers of old times could throw a punch as powerfull as a cross with their lead hands.

I went over the diagrams and practiced the footwork in the book, and certainly you can feel the difference in putting the weight behind a punch with your lead hand. Yet, the whole system seems so complicated after a while to master it. The book advocates using your power hand as a lead hand. So far so good, but it would take forever to take all that theory to make the straight lead work as a power punch. Compared that to the simplicity and effectiveness of just the standard boxing guard position with your strong hand as the rear one.

The book is interesting and informative, but I gave up reading and trying the stuff in it after reading 75% of it. Maybe because I have a short attention span... oh... chickie down the aisle 5 o'clock.

The street argument is retarded. BJJ is so much overkill for the street that its ridiculous. Unless you're the idiot that picks a fight with the high school wrestling team, barring knife or gun play, the opponent shouldn't make it past double leg + ground and pound - Osiris

Of all weapon arts, I think stickfighting is the most valuable supplement to unarmed combat. I've found the repeated motions from stick patterns to be quite beneficial for "swimming" through the clinch, in addition to some strikes and active blocking. My buddy, who thinks his krotty is an unstoppable style, argues with me constantly about things like this. Kinda funny how he'll only grapple with me, since he always gets owned at standup, in spite of a 100 pound weight advantage.

Hearing your take on this, I wonder if I've been too quick to judge JKD. My experience has been that JKD'ers aren't open to studying anything their own teacher doesn't show them, which seems to run contrary to what JKD is supposed to be about.

I'm pretty happy with the stickfighting class because of my instructor's stickfighting experience. I'm not sure if I'd be as enthused if he hadn't any. I'm hoping to get him to show a little more empty-hand application as well, especially synching up the footwork with boxing/kickboxing in standup and the standup bits of wrestling.

I wouldn't take my take on JKD as the norm. It's my instructor's take really, heavily reinforced by sparring. He also encourages people to pick up things at other schools. When I told him I was looking to roll nearly every day of the week if I could survive it he ran down a list of nearby schools that might help me get the extra training I was looking for. Maybe I got lucky instructor-wise, until I ran across some of the stranger JKD/Jun Fan people online I thought my school was the norm.